Ladder adviceFollow

I got a new boss awhile ago. My very best employee doens't get along with the new boss at all. I'm in an email cc battle between the two of them right now over hours.

I've always been very liberal how I've allowed this girl that works for me to get her work done. I count productivity over actual hours sitting in her cubby. She's got twin 7 year olds so is busy, to say the least. I allow her to work from home...or whereever. She's a work-horse and gets TONS done in short order.

Anyway, our offices are situated such that this employee (who I DIRECTLY supervise) sits right next to my new boss. So the new boss sees her arriving late, leaving early, not showing up etc etc.

I discussed this at length with my new boss when she started and thought it was all sorted out. However, today what has happened was, New Boss sent me an email, ccing the Old Employee. The email lists precisely (to the minute) what times this employee came to work and left work each day for the last pay period. Of course Old Employee has already fired back a pretty dam scalding email defending herself and questionging new bosses intelligence.

Clearly new boss is micro-managing and not following proper chain of command. I suppose I'll need to address that with her, but it's gonna suck. Old employee is a bit immature and can be downright ****** when she wants. Likewise I may need to take some pre-disciplinary steps based on the email she just sent .

'sigh'...any advice how to maintain good working relations with both boss as well as keep my employee happy and productive?

....another email just popped into my box from New Employee...stay tuned.

I would confirm with the boss that they have no concerns regarding the level or quality of work being performed and then suggest that supervising said employee is part of your job and that you have made flexible scheduling arrangements with that employee. If you haven't started, I would be documenting such arrangements formally and keeping it in that employees' file, signed by both of you...so that you have "official" documentation to produce should anything come into question. If you have a calendaring system, make sure the employee note on the calendar the times she is working from home so that you can have a time and effort report that is in line with the hours she is billing your office for.

If that isn't enough for your new micro-manager, suggest that they are welcome to take over your supervisory duties so that you can take longer lunches.

Nexa

Oooooo............Joph got touchy! C'mon, you jumped the ladder with Senora Flea so you yet again were able to disprove yet another internet theory!

I'm not touchy, just generally cranky

Nexa pretty much hit it on the head. I would also add keeping documentation of how much said employee actually accomplishes in order to justify your actions.

I'm guessing you don't have the rapport built with the new boss yet to tell him/her to fuck off, verbatim or not.

Before I went out on my own I had a similiar work set up. I came in late, left early, took long lunches and most importantly: took work home. My problem wasn't kids though, I'm a burst worker. I can do more in two hours than most can in eight, unfortunatly then I have to 'decompress' (why I orginally started lurking here) or I get agitated, irritated and generally not someone you want to talk to. My original boss understood this and was fine with it so long as I kept my work up. The guy who bought his company didn't understand, fortunatly my original boss was the **** type and he and I had done what Nexa has suggested and set up a system to document it. It didn't help though, the new boss still groused and complained, hense my working for meself.

I agree with documenting and seeing if your company has a "flex policy" with established guidelines to follow within them. If there is not one, as stated before perhaps constructing an agreement between yourself and Old Employee regarding her hours would be best. I would make this widely available to both the new boss, and to his direct supervisor (if applicable).

As an example from personal experience, my agency has a "core window" of hours employees are expected to be in the building, which is 10-2. Other than that, clinicians' hours are set on when they are seeing clients. Many of my coworkers have families and do not want to work late to see the clients who want to be seen after work; I, on the other hand, am more nocturnal and as a result am more than happy to stay later, if that means I can come in late. Due to some early morning groups I do though, I have a wildly fluctuating schedule from day to day. My agency does not pay over-time, so we are forced to "flex" our time to suit our needs and make every week add up to 40 hours.
My typical weekly schedule:
Monday: 10:30am-8:00pm
Tuesday: 10:30am-6:30pm
Wednesday: 9:00am-8:00pm (ouch)
Thursday: 10:30am- 6:30pm
Friday: 9:00am-3:00pm

However, once again I agree about keeping meticulous documentation. I document on my time sheet, in addition to the Service Activity Log (more paperwork, used for billing purposes)exactly when I am coming and going, and what I am doing in that time. My boss has never had a problem with my times, and has actually thanked me more than once for being willing to stay later, be flexible, etc.

Now, just last week an incident arose, because apparently someone had the audacity to complain to my boss about me strolling in at 10:30am some days. So, I constructed a very detailed report of my average hours, and exactly what I am doing during those times. I showed it to my boss, who chuckled and stated that he knew I was doing my job properly, as did upper management; but that he'd be sure to show the next person that complained to shut them up.